JP2635680B2 - Synthetic aperture processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an ultrasonic flaw detector used in the field of industrial measurement, an underground exploration used in underground construction, and the like. The present invention relates to an aperture synthesis processing device used for radar and the like.

(Prior Art) In general, as shown in FIG. 4, an ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus has its active sensing means 1 formed by a sensor unit 2, a transmission / reception unit 3, and a frequency conversion unit 4, and is generated by the transmission / reception unit 3. The generated ultrasonic waves are emitted to a target object (not shown) via the sensor unit 2, and the reflected signal (echo signal) is received again by the sensor unit 2 and guided to the frequency conversion unit 4 via the transmission / reception unit 3. By repeating the conversion to low frequency,
A two-dimensional cross-sectional image called a B scope is obtained. The image data obtained by the active sensing means 1 is A / D-converted by an A / D (analog / digital) converter 5, converted into a digital signal, and displayed on an image display 6 such as a monitor.

However, in the ultrasonic flaw detector, since the ultrasonic waves have a constant spread angle, a plurality of reflected signals are included in the reflected signals from each point of the object (not shown). When the two-dimensional cross-sectional image is displayed on the image display unit 6, there is a problem that, for example, the signal from the point target spreads in an arc shape and the azimuth resolution is reduced.

For this reason, in the ultrasonic flaw detector, as shown in FIG. 5, an aperture synthesizing device 7 is interposed between the A / D converter 5 and the image display 6. The aperture synthesizing processor 7 performs a process of collecting the information distributed in the arc shape, compressing the information into one point, improving the azimuth resolution, and synthesizing the aperture surface of the sensor unit 2.

However, in the aperture synthesizing processing device 7, since the digital signal must be geometrically transformed,
Because it is necessary to perform a so-called batch process using a general-purpose computer, or to provide a device dedicated to the aperture synthesis process, the process takes a long time, or it becomes large, There has been a problem that the operation is greatly restricted.

This situation is the same in an underground exploration radar that emits microwaves to a target object and obtains a two-dimensional cross-sectional image from a reflected signal.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the conventional aperture synthesizing processing apparatus, the processing takes a long time or becomes large, and any of these apparatuses has a great restriction in operation. Was to receive.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an aperture synthesizing processing apparatus that can be simplified in configuration, can be downsized, and can increase the processing speed. .

[Constitution of the Invention] (Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention relates to an average value compression unit that matches the vertical and horizontal scales corresponding to one pixel of two-dimensional cross-sectional image data output from an active sensing unit. Data holding means for holding image data scaled by the average value compression means;
A geometric transformation unit that develops one line of the image data held in the data holding unit into a geometric shape based on the conversion coefficient, and calculates only output data of the geometric shape part to calculate output image data; An aperture synthesizing apparatus includes an adding means for sequentially adding the output image data calculated by the geometric transformation means while shifting the pixel data at a pixel interval to synthesize an aperture figure.

(Operation) According to the above configuration, the image data is obtained by performing a geometric transformation of the output image address from the input image address by the geometric transformation unit in which the transformation coefficient is set via the parameter control unit. An aperture synthetic figure is obtained by sequentially adding while shifting the converted output. As a result, it is not necessary to calculate an extra area for the geometric transformation, and only the minimum area needs to be calculated, so that the processing speed can be increased as much as possible.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an aperture synthesizing processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. A preprocessing means 11 is provided at an output end of an active sensing means 10 for outputting image data of a two-dimensional sectional image of a target object (not shown). Is connected. This pre-processing means 11 performs pre-processing such as density conversion of image data, window processing, etc.
Output to the average value compression means 12. The average value compressing means 12 converts the input image data into square pixels having a uniform vertical and horizontal physical scale of one pixel, and outputs the same to the data holding means 13. The image data held in the data holding unit 13 is converted by the geometric transformation unit 14 by, for example, inverse affine transformation.
As shown in FIG. 2, the data of one line is expanded into a fan shape, and only the expanded fan-shaped portion A (a portion excluding the region other than the hatched portion in the drawing) is performed in the window. The output image address is obtained from the input image address. The geometric conversion means 14 is connected to a parameter holding means 15 for performing a geometric conversion in accordance with the conversion coefficient stored in the parameter holding means 15. As a sampling method, for example, a pixel density To avoid mixing, the nearest neighbor method is used. The conversion coefficient stored in the parameter holding means 15 is converted by the parameter generation means 16 into the active sensing means 10 so that no gap is generated between pixels on the circumference of the fan shape during geometric transformation. The conversion coefficient is selectively switched and set in accordance with a mode or the like of the sensor unit (not shown) at the time of acquiring image data. The output of the geometric transformation means 14 is guided to the shift addition means 17 via the data holding means 13. The shift adding means 17 adds the outputs of the geometric transforming means 14 so as to be shifted, for example, one pixel at a time, so as to be drawn in order, thereby forming an aperture synthetic figure corresponding to the image data. The shift adding means 17 includes an image display unit.
18 is connected, for example, via post-processing means 19 for performing predetermined post-processing.

The active sensing means 10, the preprocessing means 11, the average value compression means 12, the geometric transformation means 14, the parameter holding means 15,
Parameter generating means 16, shift adding means 17, post-processing means
19 and the image processing unit 18 have, for example,
Control bus of control means 20 composed of a general-purpose computer
21 is connected, and is driven and controlled via the control means 20.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the image data 10a from the active sensing means 10 is first guided to a preprocessing means 11 and subjected to a predetermined preprocessing.
Then, the scale is adjusted as shown in FIG.
After that, the scaled image data 10b is expanded by the geometric transformation means 14 into data of one vertical line into fan-shaped data 10c as shown in FIG. Next, the output of the geometric transformation means 14 is shifted by one pixel by the shift addition means 17 and added in such a manner as to be drawn in an overlapped manner, and the aperture synthetic figure 10d as shown in FIG.
Is formed. This synthetic aperture figure 10d is sent to the post-processing
After the predetermined post-processing is performed by the
And displayed as a two-dimensional cross-sectional image.

As described above, the aperture synthesis processing apparatus obtains the output image address by performing inverse affine transformation from the input image address in the geometric transformation unit 14 in which the transformation coefficient is set via the parameter holding unit 15 and the parameter generation unit 16. Since the geometrical transformation output is added while being shifted to form an aperture synthetic figure, the geometrical transformation area does not require all calculations in a window such as a normal affine transformation. In addition, only the calculation of the minimum area is required, and the calculation of the calculation of the conversion coefficient during the processing can be omitted, so that the processing can be sped up as much as possible. According to this, a portion surrounded by a broken line in FIG. 1 is a so-called digital signal processor (DS).
Since it can be configured with a simple system using P) or the like, miniaturization can be improved.

In the above embodiment, the pre-processing unit 11 and the post-processing unit
Although the description has been made of the case where the configuration is made using the configuration 19, the configuration is not limited to this, and the configuration may be such that the pre-processing unit 11 and the post-processing unit 19 are omitted according to the image to be processed.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the average value compressing means 12 and the geometric transforming means 14 are arranged separately. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and these means may be integrally formed. Further, the parameter holding unit 15 and the parameter generation unit 16 can be configured integrally with the control unit 20. Therefore, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, there is provided an aperture synthesizing processing apparatus capable of simplifying the configuration, reducing the size, and increasing the processing speed. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an aperture synthesizing processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams showing the operation of FIG. 1, FIG. 4 and FIG. Are block diagrams shown to explain the problems of the conventional aperture synthesis processing apparatus. 10 Active sensing means 11 Preprocessing means 12
... Average value compression means, 13 ... Data holding means, 14 ... Geometric conversion means, 15 ... Parameter holding means, 16 ... Parameter generation means, 17 ... Shift addition means, 18 ... Image display unit, 19 ... ... post-processing means, 20 ... control means, 21 ... control bus.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An average value compression means for matching a vertical and horizontal scale corresponding to one pixel of two-dimensional cross-sectional image data output from an active sensing means, and holding image data scaled by the average value compression means. A data holding unit that performs one-line data of image data held in the data holding unit into a geometric shape based on a conversion coefficient, and calculates only output data of the geometric shape part to calculate output image data An aperture synthesizing apparatus, comprising: a geometric conversion unit that performs the above-described processing; and an addition unit that synthesizes an opening figure by sequentially adding the output image data calculated by the geometric conversion unit while shifting the pixel data at pixel intervals.